“Before I came to Hollywood, I was a writer of short stories and novellas. I used to pace the streets of Manhattan wondering what he or she said next or what the next scene was. That’s what writing is all about.” — Ernest Lehman
Writers Speak
Scott Spencer on dreaming out loud
Writers Speak“Writing is a way of dreaming out loud, and in public; even the most noble tales, if truly told, contain within them nuggets of evidence about the teller: soft spots, blind spots, weird obsessions. Wariness about these potentially embarrassing aspects and a willingness to weed them out is a deadly practice for a writer.”
Katherine Anne Porter on the ending
Writers Speak“If I didn’t know the ending of a story, I wouldn’t begin. I always write my last lines, my last paragraph, my last page first, and then I go back and work towards it. I know where I’m going. I know what my goal is. And how I get there is God’s grace.”
-Katherine Anne Porter
John McPhee on confidence
Writers Speak“If you lack confidence in setting one word after another and sense that you are stuck in a place from which you will never be set free, if you feel sure that you will never make it and were not cut out to do this, if your prose seems stillborn and you completely lack confidence, you must be a writer.”
-John McPhee
Elie Wiesel on the first line
Writers Speak“With novels, it’s the first line that’s important. If I have that the novel comes easily. The first line determines the form of the whole novel. The first line sets the tone, the melody. If I hear the tone, the melody, then I have the book.”
Raymond Chandler’s two writing rules
Writers Speak“The important thing is that there should be a space of time, say four hours a day at the least, when a professional writer doesn’t do anything but write. He doesn’t have to write, and if he doesn’t feel like it, he shouldn’t try. He can look out the window or stand on his head or writhe on the floor. But he is not to do any other positive thing, not read, write letters, glance at magazines, or write checks. Either write or nothing…. I find it works. Two very simple rules, a: you don’t have to write. b: you can’t do anything else. The rest comes of itself.
Alexander Calder on inspiration
Writers Speak“If you keep working, inspiration comes.”
-Alexander Calder
Robert Parker on the right and wrong way to write
Writers Speak“There is no one right way. Each of us finds a way that works for him. But there is a wrong way. The wrong way is to finish your writing day with no more words on paper than when you began. Writers write.”
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Andre Dubus II on talent vs. discipline
Writers SpeakC.S. Lewis on exploration
Writers Speak“I do not sit down at my desk to put into in verse somethng that is already clear in my mind. If it were clear in my mind I would have no incentive or need to write about it. I am an explorer…We do not write in order to be understood, we write in order to understand.”